“It goes without saying that acting is a matter of discipline and craft, and that what the best performers do is always subject to analysis, criticism and argument. They say their lines, hit their marks, suffer through retakes and rehearsals, and they trust that an artisanal collaboration with writers, technicians, directors and other actors will somehow yield a work of art. But acting is also an art by itself: alchemical, mysterious, at times almost magical. A person transforms into someone else — a dancer, a Texas Ranger, a wife exiled from her native country, a young vampire, a former militant, a mogul in old age — and in the process reveals something basic and essential that is his or hers alone. In the past, we have invited the year’s great performers to be themselves for the camera and, on video, to talk about what they do. This year, we asked them to do it: to show us — in a few gestures and with a few props but without dialogue or story — what acting is. And here they are, striking some of the classic attitudes of cinema, turning their bodies and faces into instruments of pure, deep and enigmatic emotion. You will, of course, recognize them immediately and admire their grace, daring and skill. But you also may be startled to see how thoroughly themselves they are in the midst of pretending otherwise.”

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